NJ Governor's Race Yielded Small Online Spends
ClickZ's online spending estimates for NJ candidates Christie and Corzine, including charts showing breakdown by media type.
ClickZ's online spending estimates for NJ candidates Christie and Corzine, including charts showing breakdown by media type.
One of the largest and most-watched 2009 elections — New Jersey’s governor’s race — showed that increased digital “buy-in” from campaign decision-makers doesn’t always result in bigger digital media buys.
The state’s biggest contenders for the governor’s seat spent a tiny portion of their media budgets on the Web. The campaign for the winning candidate, Republican Chris Christie, spent just 2 percent of its media budget on Web ads, according to ClickZ’s estimate. Meanwhile, Democratic incumbent Corzine’s camp spent less (quite possibly far less) than 5 percent. ClickZ’s estimates are based on data from New Jersey’s campaign financing and reporting body, the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission.
Christie ’09 General Election Campaign Expenditures |
|
---|---|
Media Type | Estimated Amount Spent |
Traditional/Offline | $8.96 million |
Online | $188,000 |
Literature, Mail, & Postage | $157,230 |
Total Media Expenditures | $9.3 million |
Corzine’s online ad spending estimate is cloudy, since the campaign combined cable TV and Internet expenditures, using the “internet/cable” label. So, while the campaign’s total internet/cable spend accounts for around 5 percent of all media spending, it most likely was much less.
Corzine ’09 General Election Campaign Expenditures |
|
---|---|
Media Type | Estimated Amount Spent |
Television | $15.47 million |
Literature, Mail, & Postage | $2.28 million |
Internet/Cable TV | $947,765 |
Radio | $520,000 |
Billboards | $332,510 |
Yard Signs | $39,900 |
Newspapers | $16,705 |
Total Media Expenditures | $19.6 million |
A $7,013 payment to New Jersey news site NJ.com in October was broken out in a Corzine report, but no other online buys listed in Corzine’s reports included information about which media outlets received the money. The campaign ran display ads on the site starting in June 2009; the Christie camp also bought ads on the site.
Campaign Grid provides an overview of its work for the Christie campaign from its perspective here.